Thirty minutes. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. Twenty-seven...
Bruce kept a running count in his head.
Meanwhile, Angron's assault only grew fiercer and fiercer. He was adapting to Bruce's assortment of bizarre little gadgets, and at the same time, he was enjoying this duel more and more.
It had been far too long. Angron could barely remember who the last opponent was that had managed to hold out against him for this long.
Sure, this little bastard relied on petty tricks and a mountain of strange tools, but he was still a very fine opponent.
Yes...
This was how it should be!
"My stamina is endless, and your toys are not, Bruce!" Angron roared, shattering yet another Barrier Sphere Bruce had thrown up.
Bruce was under tremendous pressure. In terms of speed, he could not keep up with Angron. In terms of strength, he was even more outclassed. If not for his gadgets helping him out, he would have been flattened dozens of times over by now.
"That's fine. I'm not at my limit yet."
Bruce dodged aside and fired the air cannon.
Angron, having already suffered from that thing several times, immediately moved to evade it. To him, it was strange, but not impossible to avoid.
And after some mental calculation, he had already worked out that the thing needed at least three seconds to recharge after every shot. Its force was impressive, but not enough to be fatal.
Still...
Why hadn't Bruce used it to kill anyone yet? Or was that simply its upper limit?
Heh. Just a bunch of cheap little toys.
Still... they were pretty interesting.
"Mm?!"
In the next exchange, Angron was startled to find that Bruce no longer waved that ridiculous cape in front of him. Instead, he came straight in and met him head-on.
This time, Bruce's lightning claws clamped down on Angron directly. Though Bruce's arms trembled under the effort, it was still enough to make Angron's eyes widen slightly.
What was this?
Why had his strength... increased again?!
Bang!
In the instant Angron was distracted, Bruce raised his trembling left hand and blasted him with compressed air at point-blank range.
The shockwave hurled Angron backward. Bruce immediately threw the air cannon away and lunged in with both claws.
The lightning claws carved several brilliant streaks through the air, fast enough to rip a shocking wound across Angron's arm. But a primarch's regenerative power quickly slowed the bleeding.
What was going on?! What kind of gadget was this now?!
Bruce retreated while throwing knives. Angron blocked them, then rolled across the ground, grabbed the air cannon again, and fired.
Angron, who had just lunged back in, was sent flying once more.
"What is this...?" Angron endured the pain from his wounds, but his excitement only grew. "With your strength, you shouldn't be able to stop me. How are you doing this?"
"It's simple. There's another kind of power in this world called psychic energy."
Bruce answered him frankly.
What made Bruce uncomfortable throughout this entire drawn-out fight was not Angron's frenzied attacks, but the constant whispering in the back of his mind.
Bruce... Wayne... you need... strength...
Fight... for me...
Defeat him... my champion...
The strangest part was that these whispers really were lending him power, steadily strengthening his body. But Bruce knew perfectly well that this was not a good thing.
There were simply too many elements in this pit tied to Khorne. Add in the spectators from the World Eaters, every last one of them shrieking either for Angron to tear Bruce apart or for Bruce's head to be ripped off, and anyone with half a brain could tell where these whispers were coming from.
This also indirectly proved one thing.
Angron and the World Eaters had already been marked by Khorne a long time ago.
Should he keep going?
Bruce hesitated for a moment. Honestly, this was already enough. Saving Angron was one thing, but there was no need to fight Khorne head-on.
"That's not your power! It absolutely isn't!" Angron bellowed, resuming his attack.
"Of course it isn't. But I can borrow it for now."
Bruce answered while dodging.
That was why he had suddenly started performing so much better. Bruce had discovered that as long as he held his nerve and fought Angron head-on, some strange force would continue strengthening his body.
At the same time, however, he was also silently chanting things like For the Emperor, Blood for the Emperor, Skulls for the Throne.
The basic strategy was simple: he could accept Khorne's buff without accepting Khorne.
Whether or not that would keep him sane in the long run was anyone's guess, but for surviving the current crisis, it was enough.
He still had over ten minutes left to endure.
Every second felt like a damn year.
"Even so, in front of me, you're still weak, Bruce!" Angron still had more than enough overwhelming power to force back Bruce even after the latter's boost.
Bruce fought desperately to keep up, and realized his Dodging Cape had already stopped working. The long battle had damaged the item beyond reliable use.
And it wasn't the only one.
Several of his gadgets were in similar condition.
The most painful loss, however, was the Barrier Spheres. Bruce had fewer than ten left.
In other words, his remaining margin for error was down to ten mistakes.
If he used them all up, then this would turn into a full Soulsborne boss fight. One careless move, and he would die instantly.
"If I were weak, I wouldn't have challenged you in the first place, Angron."
Bruce kept his tone calm as he continued responding to the assault.
Red and blue figures crashed into each other again and again within the pit. Though the red figure was clearly dominant, the blue one always launched another counterattack every time he was knocked away.
For an Astartes to fight Angron like this had already left many spectators gaping in disbelief. And this was now almost certainly the longest duel Angron had ever fought in the pit.
In the past, even the finest World Eaters could only survive ten exchanges with Angron, maybe two or three minutes at most. Bruce was closing in on the full thirty-one minutes he had demanded.
"Marisa, Warfarin, it's time for you two to move. Leave the commander to us."
Alfred, while inwardly sweating over the spectacle in the arena, did not forget to quietly pass along the order.
According to Bruce's instructions, if he could hold out for fifteen minutes, then there would no longer be any need to execute the emergency escape plan.
And because of this extraordinary duel, more and more World Eaters had gathered to watch. They all wanted to see what kind of lunatic could keep fighting Angron for so long.
But the moment they entered the arena, they felt their blood beginning to boil, their whole bodies slipping into uncontrollable excitement.
Yes!
This was exactly what they had come to see!
"Roger that! Moving now!"
Marisa immediately activated a spell that dulled her presence, then quietly slipped away.
At the same time, Warfarin also hunched down and made full use of the Night Lords' talent for moving unseen, weaving her way out through the crowd of howling World Eaters.
The two quickly met up in the spectator stands.
"Is the commander really going to be okay? It looks like he's almost done for."
Marisa couldn't help wincing as she watched Bruce get blasted away again and again, only to keep charging back in and clawing at Angron.
The whole scene gave off a bizarre air of a tiny animal somehow trying to fight an Astartes.
Bruce's lightning claws were ferocious enough, but Angron's offense and defense were clearly on a whole different level. If not for Bruce's gadgets constantly saving him from disaster, the fight would have ended long ago.
"Have some faith in the boss. He'll be fine."
Warfarin answered with absolute confidence.
Who was their boss?
He was a man who had already beaten multiple primarchs. Angron couldn't possibly be the exception. For all they knew, this entire disadvantageous display might just be another act.
"Then we'd better do our part too! Come on, let's get the thing!"
Marisa regretted bitterly that she couldn't interfere in the duel directly. Otherwise, she would have stacked buffs on Bruce or harassed Angron with spells already.
As the two slipped away, no one paid them any attention. The overwhelming majority of the World Eaters had all their focus locked onto the duel between Angron and Bruce.
At this point, the crowd was so frenzied that even if Warfarin had started slitting throats right there, nobody would likely have noticed.
"Commander, Warfarin and Marisa have started moving."
Alfred quietly informed Bruce.
"..."
Bruce did not reply.
More accurately, he no longer had any spare focus to do so.
He needed every scrap of concentration just to survive Angron's attacks, and beyond that, he also had to resist the whispering voice of Khorne echoing through his mind.
Say the words...
Bruce Wayne... you can do it...
Become my champion, Bruce...
To hell with that. Glory to the Emperor.
Bruce silently invoked the Emperor again while continuing to borrow Khorne's faint blessing to clash with Angron.
Thank God these lightning claws were once Konrad Curze's weapons. They were durable, vicious, and absurdly tough. Otherwise, they never would have withstood Angron's relentless hacking.
But while the weapons were good enough, and the armor was good enough, Bruce discovered something depressing.
The weakest part of the equation was himself.
His strength, his stamina—everything was dropping dangerously close to its limit.
No matter how much psychic reinforcement he got, Bruce could not erase the gap in raw flesh-and-blood capability between himself and a primarch.
It was like a kindergartener in full military gear trying to beat a grown man.
It simply wasn't realistic.
Which meant...
He had to start fighting dirty.
Bruce got shoulder-checked backward, stumbled, then abruptly scooped up a handful of dust and flung it into Angron's eyes.
Even with his eyes closed, Angron could still judge Bruce's position through sound and his other senses. He pictured Bruce's movements in his head, hurled his axe with precision, and shattered the air cannon Bruce had been trying to retrieve.
Then he charged in, fists flying.
"Tch..."
Bruce could only answer with claw strikes of his own and engage in brutal close-quarters combat.
Fortunately, he had spent more than enough time sparring with primarchs in the past. That meant that, for a brief stretch, he wasn't immediately crushed. In fact, because Angron's fists were bare, the primarch's arms were quickly carved open by the lightning claws, blood splattering everywhere.
But under the effect of the Butcher's Nails, pain only made Angron more excited. The desire to attack swelled higher and higher.
"?!"
At the critical moment, Bruce swept a leg out, trying to take him down.
And to his horror, he realized—
He couldn't move him.
The move and timing had been right, but Angron's numbers were simply too absurd. He opened his bloodshot eyes and contemptuously kicked Bruce in the chest.
Bruce flew backward. Angron followed up by planting a foot on him again, surfing him across the ground, then raining down blows in a repeat of the earlier sequence.
This time, though, Angron had learned his lesson. After landing several hits and noticing Bruce still made no sound, he immediately concluded it was another fake body.
By now, twenty minutes had passed. At this point, Angron had to admit that Bruce Wayne was genuinely interesting.
To fight him for this long, despite all the cheating tools he relied on, still meant he was worth a second look.
"Stalling is pointless, Bruce."
Angron yanked on his chain, calling the axe lying several meters away back into his hand.
He lifted it and split the dummy in half, then slowly swept his gaze across the entire arena.
Finally, he locked onto one spot where the air seemed ever so slightly wrong.
When the airflow moved, something there was clearly blocking it.
An invisibility gadget, huh? This bastard really did have a lot of weird toys.
Bang!
Realizing his position had been found out, Bruce ripped off the Invisibility Cloak and immediately fired a bolt of crackling energy from a strange little weapon.
Ordinarily, Angron could ignore any bullet or projectile with his own flesh, but Bruce's gadgets had too many bizarre effects. Just to be safe, Angron dodged.
Seeing Angron dodge instead of tanking it head-on, Bruce could only continue pulling out one strange gun after another and firing wildly. He knew it was wasteful.
But every second he bought was another second survived.
As Angron kept evading, the distance between them also kept closing.
Soon, he was within ten steps of Bruce.
Seeing this, Bruce pulled out his final gun and fired. A huge net blasted out. Angron halted, split it apart with one sweep of his axe, then reversed his grip and hurled the weapon at Bruce.
Bruce dropped the gun and twisted away, but the flying axe was faster. Left with no choice, he raised his claws to block.
And that was exactly what Angron had wanted.
"You're finished."
Grinning viciously, Angron seized the chain and swung it.
The axe that Bruce had knocked aside arced back around behind him, and Bruce still hadn't fully recovered from the impact of the earlier block.
As the blade swung toward Bruce's back, Angron's grin widened. He could already feel the victory in his hands.
And then—
A flash of gold and an odd red gleam burst out at the same time, knocking the axe off course.
"?!"
Seeing such a bizarre sight, Angron hesitated for a moment, then changed tactics instantly.
He closed in and drove a fist straight at Bruce. The first blow was stopped by another Barrier Sphere, but the next instant Angron's returning axe split the barrier apart.
Boom.
Now unable to care about anything else, Angron threw his head forward and smashed a brutal headbutt toward Bruce's skull. He was utterly certain that this blow would break Bruce's neck.
What he had not expected was that, the moment their heads collided, a violent wave of dizziness slammed into him first.
His whole body was hurled backward, rolling several times across the arena floor.
The spectators, who had just been screaming at the top of their lungs, abruptly fell silent.
The World Eaters stared in disbelief at Angron, who looked almost stunned senseless, then turned their eyes toward Bruce—who seemed completely unharmed.
What the hell had just happened?
"That was close..."
Bruce inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
He had very nearly been killed by that combo. The substitute dummy was gone. The barrier spheres were gone. It really had become a Soulsborne boss fight.
Fortunately, he had still been hiding one more trump card—
the Pain Reflection Mirror.
The thing had only one function: reflect damage. Which meant that Angron's headbutt a moment ago had effectively come back at him at double strength.
Of course, the mirror wasn't invincible either. That attack alone had left a web of cracks across its surface.
Just like the Dodging Cape, it would degrade over repeated use until it finally lost its function entirely.
"Ahhh..."
It took Angron several seconds to recover from the dizziness. Then he pulled his axe back toward himself and prepared to charge in again.
"?"
The moment he stood up and looked forward, however, he saw Bruce holding a weird little spray-gun.
Pssshhh—
A blast of blazing white adhesive shot out and splattered all over Angron. The liquid clung to his body and rapidly hardened.
"What is this nonsense now?!"
Angron found the substance disgusting. Worse, it was absurdly stubborn. Sticky, binding, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move properly.
"Instant Adhesive Gun."
Bruce calmly aimed again and sprayed at the sections where the glue had already begun to loosen.
"Just you wait, clown!"
Angron furiously struggled against the adhesive.
Now that Bruce had the upper hand for the moment, all he could do was keep stalling and pray for time to advance to the twenty-six-minute mark.
Because once it did, he'd be able to activate his greatest cheat of all.
Then the Emperor would be taking the field.
At that point, offense and defense would switch.
A primarch, was it?
Then he'd just use the Emperor's stats against him.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 155)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter200)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter110)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter230)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 200
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 180
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 230
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 220
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 120
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 135
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 110
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 100
My Harem Is Indescribable 90
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 95
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 80
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 70
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 75
Checking In in Demon Slayer 80
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 85
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 70
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 65
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 70
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 70
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 65
Why did they assign me to Uma 65
MYGO Beauties 65
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 55
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 65
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 45
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 45
The Uma Musume Who Became 40
I'm Definitely Not the King of 45
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
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